Love, and Some Verses
by Hanakage
Summary: Ten times love tried its hardest to be enough, and often succeeded. A series of Naruto/Sasuke drabbles and ficlets.
1. This Much Light

**A/N:** I recently completed the "10 Song Drabbles Meme" that was circulating throughout livejournal, and have decided to post them here as well. Each one of these drabbles was written during the length of a song that came up randomly on my ipod. Some of these are canon/post-canon, and some are AU; in terms of sequencing, none are related to each other.

**Disclaimer**: _Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. "Love and Some Verses" (from which the title I've given this collection is derived) belongs to Iron & Wine. "When the Night Feels My Song" and its lyrics belong to Bedouin Soundclash.

**Song:** "When the Night Feels My Song" by Bedouin Soundclash

* * *

_  
and when the light has left  
i'm not sure of my every step  
i'll follow the wind that pushes me west  
back to my bed_

_***_

One afternoon, Naruto begins placing lanterns all around Sasuke's house, offering no explanation.

Sasuke watches wordlessly from his back porch as Naruto places some in the trees around the property, half curious and half anxious that the moron will manage to set something on fire.

When night falls, Naruto steps back and looks at his handiwork. The Uchiha district hasn't seen this much light in years.

"In case you ever get…lost again, and need to find your way back home," Naruto calls back to him and grins, lifting a hand out of habit to scratch the back of his head.

Sasuke doesn't dare tell Naruto that he already shines bright enough to make the whole idea moot.

* * *

**A/N:** Reviews are love.


	2. With You

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. "Air Mattress" and its lyrics belong to Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band.

**Song:** "Air Mattress" by Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

* * *

_i wanna sleep on the air mattress with you  
and let the air leak out. what won't i do?  
and as we sleep our bodies slowly meet  
i can feel it when your heart beats, i do_

_***_

It's a hot, sticky night (though not in the fun way), and Sasuke can't sleep. The air mattress is leaking, slowly but steadily, and he can feel his body sinking deeper and deeper towards the floor.

Sakura had graciously (read: snickering all the while) fished it out from her storage closet and leant it to them after they had broken their bed (don't ask), but Sasuke has the distinct feeling that it won't last until their new bed arrives.

Naruto lets out a snore from beside him and rolls over onto his back. The motion is enough to cause more air to hiss out, and Sasuke feels them start to slide closer together, down into the middle of the mattress.

Sasuke rests his head on Naruto's chest and falls asleep in the middle of telling himself how clearly uncomfortable this all is.

Naruto smiles in his sleep.


	3. End of Forever

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. "Love and War" and its lyrics belong to Rilo Kiley.

**Song:** "Love and War" by Rilo Kiley

* * *

_all is fair in love and war and love  
a civil war like this it always sells itself _

***

Sometimes, Naruto can't help but admit to himself that it feels like they're running in one vast, ceaseless circle—one that keeps expanding out farther and farther, until it feels like they'll be treading this cyclical path forever.

He's grown up enough to realize that "forever" is a despairingly transient concept for a ninja.

So he runs a little faster, punches a little harder, trains a little more fervently—tries to force this forever to end, so that they can finally move on and begin a new one. But each new wound—each fist through his chest, each blade against his throat, each expressionless gaze—takes longer to heal, bleeding his spirit dry like a hemophilia of the soul.

Each new time that Sasuke just barely slips out of his reach, he finds himself wondering why he's never wanted to mean _something_ to anybody even half as much.

(He doesn't know that sometimes, instead of replaying the slaughter of his clan or Itachi's death, Sasuke's nightmares leave him standing alone on the Great Naruto Bridge, staring out at a sea of blood.)

Naruto blames the lactic acid in his tired limbs for the slow, burning ache that gradually threatens to consume him.


	4. Sturdy Arms

**Disclaimer**: _Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. "Each Coming Night" and its lyrics belong to Iron & Wine.

**Song**: "Each Coming Night" by Iron & Wine

* * *

_will you say to them when i'm gone  
"i loved your son for his sturdy arms  
we both learned to cradle then live without" _

***

Naruto's twin-sized bed is much too small for the two of them, seventeen and almost fully-grown, but they don't mind.

Naruto is a warm, comforting weight draped on top of him—a shield against the world, against the indisputable truths that exist beyond the four walls of Naruto's bedroom.

Sasuke knows he'll be disowned and that high school will be a living hell for both of them if they're caught. After all, your son the honor student isn't supposed to sneak into his equally male best friend's bed at night (especially when said best friend is a straight-C student to boot), and the captain of the soccer team isn't supposed to be getting fucked by the captain of the football team. That's just not the way things are supposed to happen.

He knows all that, in the same way he knows he can't stop his heart from loving, much as he's tried.

In the morning, they'll wake up early to change the sheets and wash away the evidence. Sasuke will sneak out of Naruto's room and into the loneliness of his own. And they will thank gods that they don't believe in when Naruto's parents say nothing each time Naruto's rickety window closes noisily at five in the morning.

So they cling to each other, because they know how soon morning comes. And until then, Sasuke buries his face in Naruto's sweaty neck, breathes in the scent of what they've done, of what gloriously can't be denied.

Naruto holds him a little closer, so that Sasuke knows Naruto's the only one that will never let go.


	5. Efficiency

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. "Vegetable Car" and its lyrics belong to Joshua Radin.

**Song:** "Vegetable Car" by Joshua Radin

* * *

_(s)he drives a vegetable car  
diesel, Mercedes, green, two door  
i barely know who you are_

***

"Looks like you've got yourself a really fuel-efficient car there," Naruto noted, calling out to the guy parked next to him.

Said environmentally-conscious (and sexy!) car owner turned to regard him, one haughty black brow raised. Looking Naruto up and down, a lazy, sultry smirk twisted its way onto his lips. "Nearly forty miles to the gallon."

Naruto returned the expression, licking his lips. "…Hot."

…When Naruto climbed out of the same car over a half-hour later, blissfully disheveled and thankful for tinted windows, he reminded himself that he'd always known that minor in Environmental Studies would come in handy some day.


	6. There Is Nothing

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. "Easy/Lucky/Free" and its lyrics belong to Bright Eyes.

**Song:** "Easy/Lucky/Free" by Bright Eyes

* * *

_honey don't you weep (don't you weep for them)  
don't you weep (don't you weep)  
there is nothing as lucky, as easy, or free _

***

It doesn't matter how many times she looks at them. She still tears up, every single time.

And it is only time that has blurred the pain and allowed for peace to settle in her chest, much like the strands of gray that are slowly infiltrating her pink hair. The fine wrinkles around her eyes are never more visible as when she's smiling.

Smiling through her tears, smiling for them, smiling because she knows that they're finally free. Smiling because happy tears are all that she has left to offer them.

_Uchiha Sasuke_. _Uzumaki Naruto_. Her fingers trace the characters etched beside each other on the memorial stone, where they are eternally separated by nothing farther than the space between their names.


	7. So Fuck You

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. "Grace Under Pressure" and its lyrics belong to Elbow.

**Song:** "Grace Under Pressure" by Elbow

* * *

_we still believe in love, so fuck you_

***

Sasuke never voluntarily held his hand.

Which, of course, made Naruto want to hold it all the more.

But he understood; he'd known since their relationship began that his bastard sucked at showing affection. And he loved him for it anyway. He did his best to avoid drawing attention to them when they were out in public, knowing it made Sasuke uneasy. (Most of all, he knew "unease" was just another word for "fear".)

But one sunny summer afternoon while they were walking down the sidewalk, he forgot himself, lost in the rare resonance of Sasuke's soft laughter, a sound only he was ever graced with. He kissed Sasuke right there and then, in the middle of Third Street, oblivious to all the people around them.

He felt the smile freeze and wither under his lips, and slowly withdrew. Instinctively, his hands reached out to grab Sasuke's forearms, stilling him before he could push Naruto away. Again.

Sasuke looked like he was ready to jerk out of Naruto's hold and bolt. Naruto could have almost laughed at the realization that Sasuke, who never gave a damn about what anyone thought of him, was actually human enough to recoil from the hostility of total strangers.

Every line in Sasuke was taut, on edge; even his words came expelled from a clenched jaw, so soft Naruto could hardly hear them. "How… can you not mind the way that they look at us?" _At how much they hate us, just for loving each other?_

Naruto's stance, his eyes, his smile: all were resolute. "I'm here with you, aren't I?"

A long moment passed in which Sasuke merely stared at him, before letting out a sigh that made the rigidity in his shoulders finally ease. "Idiot."

But as Naruto's hands loosened and fell away from his wrists, he caught one with his own and gripped it tightly. Through his surprise, Naruto still managed to catch a glimpse of the faint smile Sasuke was trying to hide.

They continued on with their walk.

They didn't need, or want, a parade. There was enough pride apparent in every footstep, in each interlaced finger.


	8. What Is Left

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. "No One Would Riot For Less" and its lyrics belong to Bright Eyes.

**Song:** "No One Would Riot For Less" by Bright Eyes

* * *

_so love me now, hell is coming  
you kiss my mouth, hell is here _

***

When it is all over, he collapses onto the remnants of his cursed clan's blood.

There's a distant, nearly smothered part of him that still manages to muse that it's oddly appropriate how unbearably _bitter_ his blood tastes, splashed across the roof of his mouth.

He's so impossibly _tired_ that he cannot so much as lift his head—cannot cough away the copper-flavored, bile-seasoned sting coating his esophagus, cannot open his own wretched eyes to watch the blood from his wounds flow to mix with that of his most wretched ancestor—let alone resume the tenuous farce of running away from the eyes he can feel on his back, still desperately searching for a way to _save_ him, to save _him_ and save the _world_ and save the foolish hope that the living damned can even fucking be _saved_.

Because now there is truly nothing left. He _has _nothing; he _is_ nothing.

He's as empty as if he were the one smeared across the upturned stone. The true tragedy is that he doesn't have the relief of being dead.

"You've got me, Sasuke," comes the hoarse whisper from behind him, punctuated by the feather-light brush of callused fingertips hovering over his shoulder, "I'm not much, but you've got me."

_Perhaps_, he thinks, _but what is left for you to have?_


	9. Shared Moments, Revisited

**Disclaimer: **_Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. "The Angel and the One" and its lyrics belong to Weezer.

**Song:** "The Angel and the One" by Weezer

* * *

_i've reached a higher place  
that no one else can make a claim in  
i'll take you there my friend  
i'm reaching out my hand so take it _

***

The dock is much smaller than he remembers. Time has weathered it (like it has everyone), and the wood creaks under his footsteps, heavy with the weight of the decade it's been since he last set foot here.

This is the last place he can remember being a child, before that part of him was ripped away and slaughtered with the rest of his clan. He can almost envision that child sitting here now, a bright-eyed ghost unaware of the blood that would someday stain his hands.

He isn't sure how long he stands on the dock, looking out over the water and feeling as uncertain about the future as when he struggled to perform a simple Katon and thirsted for nothing more than his father's acknowledgment. Mainly because throughout all the years he chased after Itachi, Sasuke never thought he'd actually live to see the future.

He glances over his shoulder and catches sight of Naruto standing tall atop the hill, red robes catching the breeze. The memory, faint and blurry like an old photograph, buried long ago but never actually erased, wells up within his mind: two young boys, secret smiles concealed behind an exchange of exaggerated scowls, an infinitesimal moment of true connection.

Inexplicably, Sasuke finds himself thinking that perhaps the future begins just where the past did—like the perpetual flow of water from an inexhaustible source.

From up atop the hill, Naruto catches sight of a smile that hasn't emerged in over a decade. This time, the smiles are not hidden, but the shared moment feels the same.

And in that moment, there is peace.

_(peace, peace)_


	10. It's Enough

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. "Paint or Pollen" and its lyrics belong to Blind Pilot.

**Song:** "Paint or Pollen" by Blind Pilot

* * *

_you got blown shore to shore  
not quite sailing  
riding on the trade winds of age_

***

Naruto was one of those people for whom, and with whom, summer seemed to last forever.

Every day held the promise of countless new adventures: Those days when they jumped in the car and just drove and drove and drove, with no map and no destination. Those nights when Naruto filled up the silence with mindless chatter, and Sasuke was content just to listen to the sound of his voice and the ever-present hum of friendship. Those mornings when they crept out of their beds at dawn and collapsed into them at midnight, exhausted but smelling of grass and gasoline and sunlight.

If he lives to see one hundred summers, Sasuke knows he'll never forget that one evening when they laid on the hood of Naruto's car watching the sunlight fade out across the ocean, and Naruto turned and kissed him like he'd never meant anything more in his entire life.

And it's enough; enough to get him through the coldest winter days, or the nights when Naruto hogs the blankets, searching for the warmth of summer sun in his dreams.

* * *

**A/N: **Thank you so much to everyone that has reviewed! You guys are awesome! :)


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